A Wolf's Dream
by Alarmclock Wizard
Summary: This is one chapter from an original story that I have been working on. Quite graphic.  Enjoy, and let me know what you think.


Zachary sat in his room near the endlessly burning fire. Strangely, he felt no heat coming from the fireplace, but the hypnotic dance of the flame was remarkable relaxing. He looked down at the face on the cover of his assigned homework, the wise eyes of the wolf still starting out at him. The book was aged considerably, yet the silver outline of the wolf did not appear to have faded at all, causing the contrast of silver on black to be even more striking.

He opened the book to the title page, which was blank except for two lines of text near the top, which read, 'Lycanthropy' in bold, and directly below in a smaller font, 'How to deal with becoming a werewolf.'

Zachary slammed the book shut. This was just not possible. What kind of sick joke was Pastor Marian playing on him? He angrily rose to his feat and threw the book onto the table. He walked to the window and looked out onto the garden behind the mansion. It looked so peaceful and beautiful. A maze of rose bushes, lined on both sides with chary trees, and a pond in the center dotted with water lilies. The trees were covered in light pink blossoms. As he looked, a single petal caught his eye as it slowly fell to the ground. He watched as it gently floated downward until it finally reached the earth, joining the blanket of nearly white pink petals around the tree.

He observed the beuty outside and wished the Jenifer could be here with him. To his recollection, he had just left church with the love of his life, yesterday. He lost that woman to a beast which he himself was now turning into. He hated the thought of becoming that thing. He hated it more than anything. He hated himself for not being able to save Jenifer. He hated the people in the house where he left her for not answering the door more quickly. He hated Pastor Marian for not telling him exactly what was happening. He hated Jenifer for insisting that they walk rather than take his car, and he hated her for leaving him.

Enraged, he pounded his fist ageist the wall and nearly broke his hand. He looked down to examine his throbbing appendage and was awestruck by what he saw. The pain was gone almost instantly, but that was not the strange part. Unintentionally, he had literally punched a three inch deep hole into the brick wall. He looked at his hand which now felt as if nothing had happened. He flexed his fingers causing his knuckles to crack. _Is this real?, _he thought to himself.

"No" he said allowed. "It must be a dream. There is no way this can be real." He turned back to look at the book, still patiently waiting for him on the table. "Well," he said, "if I must be a monster, I might as well be the best darn monster I can be."

He sat back down and opened the book a second time, and flipped through the pages to find the beginning of the first chapter. The chapter was titled, "what to expect in the beginning."

The chapter began, 'If you are reading this, you have most likely defeated the Black Wolf, and may have already gone through your first change." It went on to explain in grate detail what a body goes threw during a "change." It also listed some personality changes that may take place, such as a nearly insatiable hunger for raw meat, and occasional, short bouts of uncontrollable rage. It also mentioned some tips on how to deal with such things.

It was a fairly short book, only about 60 pages long. When Zachary finished reading, he closed the book and placed it back on the table. He continued to sit there for a moment, contemplating all of the information that he had just taken in. He was starting to doubt that this was a dream after all. He had never before had a dream so vivid or precise. He looked over into the fireplace, and watched the gentle elimination dance and wave inside the hearth.

Again, he felt incredibly lonely. Without Jenifer his hart was empty. Without her he was truly alone. He wished beyond all hope that he could talk to her again. If only he could call her. He would tell her about this strange house that her father had brought him to and they would joke about the pastor's backwards way of forcing you to salve all of you problems on your own. Just one day ago, she was simply a phone call away, whenever he needed her. Now the best he could get was a voice mail message, which he dare not call for fear that hearing her voice may just send him over the edge. All things considered he may already be over that edge.

His eyes welled with tears and he leaned back in the chair to stair at the ceiling. He closed his eyes and buried his now tear soaked face in him hands, and silently prayed for God to lift the massive weight of grief from him.

He was suddenly engulfed in a black nothingness. As he rose to his feat and his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a small light appeared in the center of his vision. As he focused on it, it began to grow and become brighter. It continued to grow until the darkness that had surrounded him was completely replaced by a blinding white light.

Once his eyes adjusted again, he saw himself, soaked by the sudden downpour, gently placing Jenifer's barely breathing body on the porch swing. He watched himself kiss her gently on the lips, then make his way to the door. He pounded twice on the door, almost hard enough to loosen it from its hinges, before suddenly falling to the ground, writhing in pain. He managed to crawl off of the porch before a man answered the door. As he watched himself lie on the ground, every muscle twitching, he heard the voice of the man who had just discovered Jenifer. "Honey, call 911." The man's wife came running out of the house with a phone, to discover her husband kneeling beside Jenifer's dying body.

"Is she…" asked the woman.

"Just dial the dam numbers" replied the man sternly.

Zachary then watched as his body grew larger and more muscular, until his wet clothes could no longer withstand the strain and tore. He continued writhing in pain as the clothes fell off his body and were replaced by coerce brown hair. His hands were now roughly the size of diner plaits from fingertip to palm, and his head was slowly changing shape. His entire face stretched outward and his teeth grew longer and pointed. The tops of his ears stretched upward and to a point. As he continued to transformed, he rose to his feat and slowly retreated to the back of the house.

Once the transformation was complete, he let out a howl of relief. He turned to his left to see a Rottweiler snarling at him from the end of its chain. He pounced after the dog and quickly wrestled it to the ground. He then closed his mouth around its throat, causing blood to splash agents his face and spray onto the ground around them.

The man on the porch must have heard the commotion, because Zachary then heard him say to his wife, "you stay here, I will be write back." He then heard a door slam fallowed by footsteps across a hardwood floor. The footsteps soon made their way back to the front of the house and once again the door opened and closed loudly.

He then heard the woman cry out, "Jim! What are you doing with that gun?"

"I heard something in the back yard, just stay here," replied the man. His wife did not answer.

Zachary then heard the man's boots crunching on the wet grass as he got closer. He rose from his kill and prepared himself for the battle which was now making its way around the side of the house. He watched as the barrel of a rifle emerged from the corner of the house fallowed immediately by the man wielding it.

Upon witnessing the giant beast, covered in blood, standing over the corps of his dog, the man instinctively shot. The bullet found its mark in the upper left side of Zachary's chest, just below the collar bone. Zachary was not fazed by this as blood began trickling down his fur covered chest. He simply raised his right hand to the wound, and with the claw of his index finger, fished the bullet out of his chest. Blood began squirting out from the wound until it slowly closed itself.

Sensing the man's fear, Zachary began to move closer. Upon his first step forward the man fired a second shot, followed by another and another. By the time the distance between then had been halved, the man had emptied the entire clip into Zachary's abdomen. Despite this, Zachary continued slowly approaching the man, savoring the ever increasing stench of fear.

Once Zachary was about six feet away from the man, he dropped to his knees and cowered in fear. Before Zachary could move in for the kill a figure appeared between them. Zachary heard a voice, although the figure did not appear to be speaking. "Zachary, I am your master and you shall not harm any of my children." At the mention of his name Zachary regained his self control. He could now see the figure more clearly. It was the tall blond man.

"Come with me."

Zachary fallowed as the other man continued cowering, seemingly unaware of the new presence. They walked back to the front of the house were Jenifer was being loaded into an ambulance. They fallowed her stretcher into the back of the ambulance as the driver closed the doors behind them. Inside the ambulance two men were franticly trying everything that they could to keep Jenifer alive. They did not seem to notes the presence of Zachary and the blond man.

Zachary looked down at Jenifer as the men swarmed around them. She looked back up at him and said. "Zachary, it's not your fault. It had to be this way."

"Why?" asked Zachary. "Why did you have to die?"

"Because, you have other responsibilities, and I could not join you in your journey." Before Zachary could respond she reached up and placed a finger upon his lips silencing him. "Make me proud, my love." Then her eyes closed and she slipped away.


End file.
